Jones GT Enrichment
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BRAIN TEASERS
BRAIN TEASER #1
BRAIN TEASER #2
BRAIN TEASER #3
A DEFEATED GENERAL LED TO THE INVENTION OF CHEWING GUM.
Thomas Adams (1818-1905)
The Chewing Gum Man
You may have heard of the Battle of the Alamo where a small group of brave defenders held out for 11 days against 4,000 troops of General Santa Anna. While the General claimed victory at the Alamo, he was defeated in a later battle and left Mexico for Staten Island, New York. There he stayed in the home of Thomas Adams.
As an inventor, Thomas tinkered with lots of ideas but did not have the money to carry them out. Santa Anna suggested that cheap and plentiful chicle from Mexico might make good rubber. Thomas thought this was a great idea. Santa Anna still had friends in Mexico. He arranged for a large quantity of chicle to be shipped to Thomas Adams.
Thomas rented a warehouse to store the chicle. He worked day and night to come up with a cheaper kind of rubber made out of the chicle.. He tried making toys, boots, and bicycle tires. Nothing worked. The rubber split and came apart. It would not keep its shape. After months of work Adams decided the best place for all that chicle was at the bottom of the East River.
Many inventions come from accidental discoveries. wondering what to do with all the chicle in the warehouse, Thomas broke off a piece and popped it in his mouth. He enjoyed chewing the chicle. Maybe other people would enjoy it, too. He and his sons made up boxes of the chicle gum and sold it.
Two years later Thomas invented a machine to make the gum and opened the first chewing gum factory in the country. Before long factory workers were adding different flavors to the gum, and it became popular throughout the nation.
THOMAS ADAMS HAD FINALLY FOUND SUCCESS AS AN INVENTOR, THANKS TO A DEFEATED GENERAL WHO CAME TO VISIT HIM.
Excerpt from the book, "BLUNDER OR BRAINSTORM? FACT OR FICTION OF FAMOUS INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS" By Nancy Polette
THE INVENTION OF CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES WAS AN ACCIDENT.
Ruth Wakefield (1903-1977)
Inventor of Chocolate Chip Cookies
People have been eating chocolate chip cookies for more than 70 years. It is the most popular cookie in America. Yet, the chocolate chip cookie came about by accident.
In 1930, Ruth Wakefield and her husband owned a small inn in Massachusetts. They named it the Toll House Inn. Ruth cooked all of the meals and desserts. People went out of their way to stop by the Inn and sample Ruth's chocolate cookies.
One morning Ruth needed to bake a batch of chocolate cookies. But Ruth didn't have any baking chocolate and she couldn't leave her baking to go to the store. Then she had an idea. A friend, Andrew Nestle, had given her a candy bar of semi-sweet chocolate. If she broke it up and put small pieces in the cookie batter the pieces would melt and she would have chocolate cookies.
Imagine Ruth's surprise when the chocolate bits did not melt! Ruth saw chips of chocolate scattered in the cookies. Would the people who bought her famous chocolate cookies like these? They did and asked for more!
Ruth named her new cookie the Toll House® Cookie after the Inn. You can find Ruth's cookie recipe today on every bag of Nestle's® chocolate chips.
Excerpts from the book "Blunder or Brainstorm? Fact or Fiction of Famous inventors and inventions" By Nancy Polette
BLUE JEANS WERE INVENTED TO GET RID OF CANVAS NO ONE WANTED.
Levi Strauss (1829-1902)
He found a new use for canvas.
In 1849, people from all over the country rushed to California to stake a gold claim. Levi Strauss traveled across the ocean to the United States from the country of Bavaria. He staked a claim of a different kind.
Levi knew that one thing everyone needed was clothing. In Levi's day clothing was sewn by hand. Women bought yards of cloth, measured, and cut, and sewed clothes for their families. Rich women bought yards of cloth and paid dressmakers to make their gowns.
Levi headed west with bolts of cloth. He also took sheets of canvas. He figured miners would need canvas for tents and wagon covers. Strauss sold his bolts of cloth, but he could not sell the canvas. Miners were too busy searching for gold to care about tents and wagon covers.
One day Levi stood looking at the canvas he could not sell. A great idea popped into his head. Miners did rough, dirty work. Pants wore out in a hurry. What if miners had pants that didn't wear out for a very long time? What if they had canvas pants? Levi sewed canvas pants. The miners liked the pants. More and more men asked Levi to make pants for them.
In 1898, Levi Strauss opened a factory in San Francisco. From France he got a heavy material called "genes." He put copper rivets in spots where the pants might show wear. He called his pants "Levi's ®." The people who bought and wore them soon gave them a new name, "Blue Jeans."
LEVI STRAUSS WOULD BE ASTONISHED TO KNOW THAT THEY ARE ONE OF THE BEST SELLING ITEMS IN THE WORLD TODAY.
Excerpt from the book, "BLUNDER OR BRAINSTORM? FACT OR FICTION OF FAMOUS INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS" by Nancy Polette
THE MICROWAVE OVEN WAS AN ACCIDENT.
Percy L. Spencer (1894-1970)
A chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
One day a scientist named Percy L. Spencer was working in his laboratory at Raytheon Company in the United States. Nearby were several large magnetron tubes. Percy was hungry. He remembered that he had a candy bar in his pocket. To his surprise, when he reached into his pocket to get his candy bar, he found a gooey mess. The candy bar had melted. Percy asked for popcorn and other foods to be brought into the laboratory. Instead of eating the foods he held them near the magnetron tubes. Popcorn began to pop! The microwaves from the tubes produced heat that cooked the food. Not only did the waves cook the food, they cooked it faster than ever before.
Percy showed his bosses at Raytheon his discovery. The bosses knew a good thing when they saw it. In 1947, Raytheon perfected the first microwave oven. It weighed 750 pounds and was as big as a refrigerator. It would be 20 years before a small enough oven was made to fit into homes.
THE NEXT TIME YOU POP POPCORN IN THE MICROWAVE, THANK PERCY SPENCER FOR BEING CURIOUS ENOUGH TO FIND OUT WHY HIS CANDY BAR MELTED.
Excerpt from the book, "BLUNDER OR BRAINSTORM? FACT OR FICTION OF FAMOUS INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS" by Nancy Polette
LET'S PLAY CHESS!!!
I have emailed you the username and password so you will be able to play chess online. There are lots of things you can do on ChessKid.com. The link is shared below. I've created a Jones GT Chess Club where you can play chess with the other GT students at Jones. You can also play against a robot, do other activities, and have chess lessons. If you have any trouble logging on, send me an email. HAVE FUN PLAYING CHESS!!!
ZENTANGLE: "ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE, ONE STROKE AT A TIME."
Here's what you will need to get started:
- a pencil
- a piece of paper
- a black marker
THE POSSIBILITIES ARE LIMITLESS.
Mrs. Lynn Massey * GT Facilitator * Jones Elementary School * Springdale, AR